Have an Android phone? If you do, there’s a secret testing menu hidden within the operating system where you can see detailed diagnostic information not available in your phone’s standard menus.

To access the hidden menu, open up the Dialer application and type the following code:

* # * # 4 6 3 6 # * # *

Once you press the last *, you’ll automatically be taken to the hidden menu where you can check out the following options:

Phone information

This menu contains a huge amount of information about your phone’s network connections. The Ping Test is useful if you’re having connection issues, and you can also view your phone’s signal strength.

There are a few extra buttons at the bottom but you should probably leave them alone if you don’t know what they do.

Battery information

This menu is pretty simple but gives you a little more information than the standard Android battery menus. Here you can check out your battery’s health, voltage, and temperature.

Battery history

The battery history menu provides highly detailed information about what has been using your phone’s battery. The default Battery Usage application only shows information since the last time you unplugged your phone, but this menu allows you to specify viewing since you last booted the phone.

You can view battery use by component, such as CPU, network, GPS, sensor, and partial wake. When viewing the application list, titles have a percentage bar displaying how much of the battery they actively used.

Usage statistics

Usage statistics shows you how much you (or your phone) used specific applications. This displays the number of times launched and the total amount of time the application was used.

Evan Wondrasek is the founder and editor-in-chief of Techerator and is a software engineer in Minneapolis, MN. Evan holds degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and is also the creator of MarkdownPad.

I really think all these data are sent to Google databases without user intervention…
If I understand correctly, Android phones are constantly connected to internet…

http://www.techerator.com Evan Wondrasek

All smartphones are constantly connected to the internet in practical terms, so Android really is no different here. The good news is that since Android is an open source project (unlike other mobile OSes), it’s feasible somebody could identify which data is going where. http://source.android.com/

Javooooo

Hi,
My HTC Desire HD says my battery health is “good” however it is a very new phone. Is “good” the highest level? I’d expect it to be excellent….
Thanks!

http://www.techerator.com Evan Wondrasek

I can’t say for sure, but I think the battery health labels are very generalized. I wouldn’t be surprised if it even came down to just “good” and “bad”.

Great with Vanilla Lattes; Let me invite you to come to Nairobi, then I’ll serve you a nice, singing hot, strong tasting class AA Capuccino in the Local Java House, Koinange Lane, Nairobi.
Techerator seem to be a great invention !
David Svarrer, CEO, Digital Age Institute, Group CTO, Genacoverigen

doyle

Awesome! This is exactly what I wanted. Thanks.

Madsen0yea

Sadly when I punch the last * into my HTC Evo 4G (as modded by Sprint) it wipes the rest of the code.

MMakoto

this code no longer works on my t-mo samsung galaxy s2 ever since upgrading to 2.3.6. any new codes out there or it simply don’t work no more?

Joycie1115

Can someone capture messages from your phone and have them send/copied and forward without you knowing? If so how do I find that app on the phone?

Mike

I downloaded an app called AnyCut to do this, but you can access the testing menu just by dialling the above code!

Peter

can you access these by other means not with the dialler i.e. with terminal explorer?? if so how?